Investing.com – Russia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Power and Manufacturing sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Moscow, the MICEX gained 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the MICEX were Moskovskaya Birzha OAO (MCX:MOEX), which rose 3.18% or 3.24 points to trade at 105.05 at the close. VTB (MCX:VTBR) added 2.65% or 0.0020 points to end at 0.0767 and Inter rao ees (MCX:IRAO) was up 2.42% or 0.0435 points to 1.8400 in late trade.
Biggest losers included United Company Rusal Plc (MCX:RUAL), which lost 3.77% or 0.900 points to trade at 22.990 in late trade. MMC Norilsk Nickel (MCX:GMKN) declined 2.79% or 250.0 points to end at 8700.0 and Severstal - ao (MCX:CHMF) shed 2.67% or 19.50 points to 712.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 118 to 93 and 22 ended unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
The Russian VIX, which measures the implied volatility of MICEX options, was up 3.40% to 35.560.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.60% or 7.40 to $1236.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.03% or 0.01 to hit $38.31 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.17 to trade at $40.22 a barrel.
USD/RUB was down 1.56% to 67.1788, while EUR/RUB fell 1.30% to 76.448.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.26% at 94.54.